Time lock mechanism



OCL 10, 1933. c

TIME LOCK MECHANISM Filed Aug. 29, 1927 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 I N VEN TOR.

A TTORNEYS,

Oct. 10, 1933. c, MILLER 1,929,704

TIME LOCK MECHANISM Filed Aug. 29, 1927 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 E Ill IN VEN TOR.

W ZM m/Vawd- A TTORNEYS Patented Oct. 10, 1933 1,929,704 TIME LOCK'MECHANISM Charles A. Miller, Stamford, Conn, assignor to The Yale & Towne Manufacturing Company,

Stamford, Conn.

Application August 29, 1927. Serial No. 216,205

12 Claims. (01. 7026) This invention relates to improvements in time lock mechanisms and has special reference to means to prevent daylight hold-ups.

It is the usual custom in banks to keep reserve currency in a chest protected by a combination locks This does not insure safety because the cashier or teller may be forced by the yeggs toopen the chest. A time lock continuously guarding the reserve chest would prevent such robbery, but this would prevent access to,

the chest by the banker as well as theyeggs.

ttempts have been made to overcome the ob jections and defects in means for protecting reserve funds in the daytime, by providingea time lock which may be set to openthe safe after a definite length of time, but which will be inoperative to run that definite length of time until some preliminary act shall have been performed by an authorized person, but such prior devices required an entirely new time lock and safe arrangementwith complicated connections.

In application for patent filed by me on the 23rd day of June, 1927, Serial No. 200,930, (Patent No. 1,858,964, dated May 1'7, 1932) is disclosed means whereby a regular time lock mechanism such as employed on many safes now in use may be adapted with but slight change, to obtain the result of permitting opening ofthe safe only after a predetermined length of time following a manual operation by an authorized person. h

My present invention differs from the prior art and the above-mentioned "application in that it performsall necessary functions without the necessity of adding any additional time movement or changing the same. It involves only a slight addition to one of the movements but permits that movement to function in its usual .manner nevertheless. In this way it is possible to secure i a time lock which will give an additional useful result and at the same time will permit opera-' tion in the old and usual manner. This is done by adding an auxiliary device which is adapted to be driven by one of the time movements but is normally held in inoperative relation thereto, and is adapted to be put into operative relation by movement of the boltof the safe.

The invention consists in certain features as hereinafter set forth and pointed out inthe claims.

Eln the accompanying drawingsz Figure 1 is a front elevation of atime lock showing an application of. my improvements thereto; 1 I V Figure 2 is a View showing the connections between the winding arbor of one'of the time movements and the release lever;

Figures detent bar having certain parts of my improvements appliedtheretd.

In thedrawings, my improvements are shown "as applied to a two movement time lock.

The casing for the mechanism isrepresented at 1 and the same is provided in one wall with an opening 2 through "which a bolt 3 forming part of a bolt-work of'a safe or vault, may enter.

Located within the casing 1 is a bolt obstructing structure comprising a detent bar 5 with which a spring-pressed arm 6 is connected and adapted to be engaged by a gravity dog '7 pivot,-

edo said detent bar, said gravity dog being disconnected from the arm 6by engagement with the casing when said detent bar drops. The arm 6'is provided with a pin 9 (preferably approximately V-shapecl in cross section) to be engaged by the hook portion of a release lever 10 and the shoulder 11 forming the base of the hook is preferably of a length greater than, the diameter'of the pin 9 and one of the flat faces of said pin will rest upon the'shoulder 11 of the release lever. The release lever 10 is pivotally supported at 12 by the framework of time mechanisms 13 and 14'and when the parts are in the positionsshown in Figure 1 of thedrawings, the detent bar 5 will be so supported by the release lever that'its forward end will be in line with the opening 2 'in the casing and will therefore obstruct the bolt in a'manner to prevent retraction of the bolt work and the unlockingofthe ,with a slot l'Zfor the accommodation of said pin. In the construction shown in the drawings, the release lever 10 is provided with two arms 18, 18 which project behind the dials-19, 19 of the respective time movements and in the paths of pins 20, 20 carried by said dials, said pins being so located that either of the time movements mayoperate the release lever to release the detent bar; and permit the latter to drop to unlocking position.

Mounted loosely on the winding arbor 21 of the time movement 14 is a lever 22. This lever is so formed as to receive a ratchet wheel 23 on and rotatable with the winding arbor. The

3 and 4 are detail views'showing the lever 22 also carries a lever dog 24 for cooperation with the ratchet wheel 23, said lever dog projecting beyond one edge of the lever and provided with a pin 25. A spring 26 engages the inner end of the lever dog and operates to retain the lattereither in cooperative relation to the ratchet wheel or out of such cooperation, according to the position to which said lever dog may be moved. The lever 22 is connected with the release lever 10 by means of a link 2'1 From the construction and arrangement of parts thus far described, it will be understood that the ratchet wheel 23 and lever dog 2% constitute clutch means for operatively connecting the lever 22 with the winding arbor 21 or disengaging it therefrom and that when said lever 22 is operatively connected with said arbor, the

time movement will supply power which will operate said lever 22 to effect operation of the release lever 10 to release the detent bar. This operation may be set for any desired amount of time; for instance, it may be set to twenty minutes.

A slide or release member '23 is mounted on the forward portion of the detent bar 5 and is provided with a plunger or head 29 disposed in rout of the end wall 30 of said bar. Theslide or release member 28 is provided with slots 31 for the passage of screws 32 and said slide or release member is maintained normally at the forward end of its movement and the flange or head spaced from the end wall 30 of the detent bar, by means of a spring 33. A latch or coupling lever 34 is pivoted at one end to the slide or member 28 and at its other end is adapted to be caused to engage the pin 25 on the lever dog 24. The latch or coupling lever is provided with a handle 35 and the inner end of this handle may be made to project sufficiently to in one of a pair of slight recesses 36 in the face of the slide or member 28 and hold said latch lever either in the position above described or in a retracted position.

When the time lock is set for the night, the latch lever 3i will be moved to its retracted position so that inward movement of the bolt 3 and of the slide or release member will not operate to effect coupling of the lever 22 with the winding arbor of the time movement 14, and therefore the time lock will operate to unlock in'the morning as will be readily understood.

To protect during the daytime, the reserve funds left in the safe, the safe will be again locked'and the main dials set to open the next morning in the usual manner while the parts of the auxiliary mechanism are set to the positions shown in Figure 1, with thelatch lever 34 engaging the pin 25.01. the lever dog 24 and the latter out of engagement with the ratchet wheel 23. The lever 22 is therefore unclutched from the winding arbor of the time movement and the initial manipulation of the bolt 3 and the actual unlocking, that the yeggs would find it safer to rather than to wait for the safe to become unlocked.

Assuming now that the safe is locked with the use of the time lock and that the parts are in the positions shown in Figure 1. If, under such conditions the bolt 3 be driven inwardly, (in the direction of the arrow), it will force the release member 28 to the left, carrying with it the latch or coupling lever 34, thus operating the lever dog 24 to effect clutching oi the lever to the arbor 21 of the time movement l i, so that the latter will then operate through said lever 22 and the link 27 to withdraw the release lever 10 and allow the locking dog or detent bar 5 to drop into its unlocking position. The duration of these operations to unlock the safe, is relatively short and is governed by the length oi time necessary for the time movement 14 to cause $11G release lever 10 to move far enough to move the shoulder 11 entirely away from the pin 9 carried by the detent bar.

Having fully described my invention What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters- Patent, is:-

1. In a time loci; assembly, a bolt obstructing bar, a time movement, adapted to remove the same from bolt obstructing position after a relatively long interval of time, an auxiliary device adapted to move the bar from bolt-obstructing position after a relatively short period of time, driving means between the said time movement and the auxiliary device, and control means for said driving means mounted on the bar and operable from the exterior or" the safe.

2. In a time look, a safe bolt, a bolt obstructing detent bar, time movements adapted to move said detent bar from bolt obstructing position after a relatively long interval, an auxiliary device adapted to move said detent bar after a relatively short interval, a driving connection between said auxiliary device and said time movements, said driving connection being normally inoperative to actuate said device, and control means carried by said detent bar adapted to be operated by the safe bolt to render said driving connection operative.

3. In a time look, a bolt obstructing detent bar, atime movement adapted to control the position of the same in the normal operation of the time lock, an auxiliary device also adapted to control said bar, a driving connection between the said time movement and said auxiliary device, and'means carried by the detent bar adapted to control said driving connection.

4:. In a time lock, a bolt obstructing detent bar, a clock movement adapted to control the position of the same in the normal operation of the time lock, an auxiliary device also adapted to control said detent bar, a normally inoperative driving connection between the said clock movement and said auxiliary device, and means carried by said detent bar and actuable from the exterior of the safe to render said driving connection operative. V

5. In a time look, a safe bolt, a bolt obstructing detent bar, time movements adapted to move said detent bar from bolt obstructing position after a relatively long interval, an auxiliary device adapted to move said detent bar after a relatively short interval, driving mechanism for said auxiliary device actuable by said time movements but adapted to be maintained normally inoperative, and a slide carried by said detent bar adapted to be actuated by attempted withdrawal of the safe bolt to render said driving mechanism operative.

6. The combination with a time lock mechaactuate the clutching means to operatively con- I nect said lever with the driven member of the time movement.

7. In a time lock mechanism, the combination with atime movement, a bolt obstructing member and a release member, of supplemental control means comprising a lever, means for operatively connecting said lever with the release member, and bolt operated means carried by the bolt obstructing member and operable to operatively connect said lever with a driven member of the time fmovement. I

8. In a time lock mechanism, the combination with a time movement including a window arbor, a bolt obstructing member and a release member, of supplemental control means comprising a lever, means for operatively connecting said lever with the release member, and bolt operated means for operatively connecting said lever with the winding arbor of the time movement.

9. In a time lock mechanism, the combination tion with a time movement including a winding arbor, a bolt obstructing member and a release member, of supplemental control means comprising a lever operatively connected with said release member, clutch means for operatively connecting said lever with said winding arbor, a bolt operated member movable on the bolt obstructing member, and an adjustable latch lever carried by said bolt operated member and adapted to operate said clutch means to operatively connect said lever with said winding arbor.

10. In a time lock mechanism, the combination with a time movement including a winding arbor, a bolt-obstructing member, and a release member, of supplemental control means comprising a lever mounted loosely on said winding arbor and operatively connected with the release member, a ratchet wheel associated with said lever and secured to said arbor, a lever dog cooperable with said ratchet wheel, a spring controlling the position of said lever dog relatively to the" ratchet wheel, a bolt operated member movable on the bolt obstructing member, and an adjustable device carried by said bolt operated member and operable to move the lever dog into operative relation to said ratchet wheel, wherebysaid lever will be operated by rotation of said arbor.

11. In a time lock mechanism, the combina-,- tion of a time movement including a winding arbor, a bolt-obstructing structure, ,a pin on said structure, a release lever operable by said time movement and haw'ng a shoulder to receive said pin, alever operatively connected with said release lever, clutch devices for operatively connecting said lever with the arbor of the time movementya bolt operated member movable on the bolt-obstructingstructure, a latch lever on said bolt operated member and movable into or operable to withdraw said lever to release said obstructing member, of a movable release device carried by said obstructing member, a lever associated with the winding arbor of the time movement, and means operable from the movable device on said obstructing member to clutch said lever to the winding arbor when said movable device is moved inwardly by said bolt, Whereby the time movement will furnish motive power to operate the release lever within a relatively short period after the device carried by said obstructing member has been moved by the bolt.

' CHARLES A. MILLER. 

